At the end of 2016, we were in Phnom Penh. We had a great experience at Siem-Reap and our hosts at Bayon Villa, ensured that our first visit to Cambodia should make us visit again. The plan was to go to Vietnam next and specifically to the Mekong Delta. Our return flight to India was from Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City, as it is now called.
In the Mekong Delta region, we were looking at staying for a couple of days at Can Tho. Now, if you look at the map, you would see the location of Saigon and Can Tho.
Phnom Penh, Saigon and Can Tho
So anyone would recommend that after Phonm Penh, we should go directly to ‘Can Tho’ and then move upwards to ‘Saigon’. So we created our itinerary, booked hotels and left the last mile planning to a later day. When it was time to plan the transfers, we started looking for connections, only to discover that there is no good direct way to reach Can Tho from Phnom Penh.
We called up our hotel in Phnom Penh as well as Can Tho, but no luck. Everyone shared the bus routes but all of them were going to Can Tho, via Saigon. It seemed so lame and dumb to do that. When everything fails, Internet comes as a savior so we started scavenging sites like TripAdvisor, Lonely Planet and what not. To our luck, we found one hard-to-believe post saying that there is a bus that goes directly. But it was an old link with no recent activity.
So we jotted down all the info, crossed our fingers and hoped that when we reach Phnon Penh, we would be able to find this company.
If you have read this far, then probably you are like me. So to cut it short, we asked our hotel guy to confirm the details we had very sincerely jotted down and carried with us. Unfortunately, the phone number is not valid any more. The travel desk at hotel were 100 % clear that there is no direct bus.
Well, you do what needs to be done. We just decided to land at the street and find the office in person and confront the possibility. And there it was! There indeed is a bus which can take you directly to Can Tho.
Since it was hard for me to find this info, I thought I would share a detailed write-up to save some anxiety for my fellow travelers.
So here’s a 10 pointer guide.
1. There IS a daily bus and the address of the bus company is:
Bus Express & Travel (Cambodia) Co. Ltd
#09 DEo, Street 230, Phsar Deumkor Commune
Tuoi Kork District, Phnom Penh
Tel : 00 855 972 119 339 – 099 790 443
And in case you are on the other side in Vietnam, then the office address is:
107 Tran Hung Dao – Q. NK
– 38C Nguyen Van Linh, P. HungLoi,
Q. Ninh Kiey – TP. Can Tho
Tel : 84 918 262 053
84 710 3832 203
Business Card
2. The office in Phnom Penh is on Street 230 but it would be hard to locate so first ask your Tuk-Tuk guy to reach the junction of Street 336,215 and 230. There is a Gas Station there. Start walking on 230. The bus office is right opposite Sak Sit Dental Clinic and Lily 6466 Salon.
Bus Company
3. Get in and show your intent. The guy would make a note on this big white board. The fair is USD 16 per person and you pay on the day of travel.
Non-Digital reservation
4. On the day of journey, we arrived the same office which was to be the point of departure. The bus was standing there, ready to go. At/About 5.30 we observed two food vendors right in front of the bus. I guess they must be coming daily so it is OK to not plan for any food. We carried our food and realised that it was not worth the curation.
Food Kiosk in the morning
5. The bus is a bit run-down. The bus starts at 6.00 but we were repeatedly told to be there at 5.00. I think that is an overkill, if you have already reserved your place. I would imagine that if you show-up by 5.30 you should be good. We were the ONLY foreigners in the bus and it was not full. When you show-up they would then take the money (USD 16 per person) and give you the receipt.
The bus
Ticket to Can Tho
They would also take your passports.
7. The first stop is at a bakery, under an hour. Its a good place to eat fresh food, use the toilets and take some fresh air.
8. In about 3 hours, the bus reaches the Cambodian side of border. You wait in the bus. It took us 30 minutes to get through. During this time, you can buy VND because unlike Cambodia, it is the local currency which works in Vietnam. The exchange rates looked fair (23000 VND for a dollar) or even better than some places in Saigon. You can also buy a SIM card, as long as you can manage to strike a conversation in Vietnamese.
9. Then the bus drives for another 100 meters and now you are in VN. A police officer climbed up our bus and looked at each passport and each person. Quite quick. You still remain in the bus and after about 30 minutes, the bus guy comes back with your passport stamped. You are done now :-)
10. Now you are in VN. Enjoy the vast expanses of paddy fields and millions of 2-wheelers. At about 11.30 ,the bus stops for food (included in the fare). Good decent food.
And then at about 2, it drops you at the Can Tho bus station. You can hail the green taxi easily. Like all the bus stations, there would be always be a few taxi guys who you should avoid. But hailing a taxi and going by the meter has not been difficult for me ever in Vietnam so just sit tight and you would find a good guy to take you to all of Vietnam.
And that finishes our bus trip.
If you have come looking for this info and if this reduces some of your anxiety and helps you plan your trip then please leave a comment. :-)
I am already dreaming another trip to Vietnam.
Thank you putting this together. This information was so hard to dig from various sources, execute and validate this. I hope this will be very helpful for all. I’d like to add that the bus transport system is very smooth and effective in South East Asia. This particular bus was still much above the average ‘super-deluxe’ bus that we get in India. The price that included and good bowl of hot meal (with choices of meat and noodles/rice) was excellent.
Hi Nanadan,
Seems you had an an exotic trip while enjoying abundant earthy flavours.
After Thailand, Cambodia / Vietnam were natural extension of our dreams of Ghumakkari destinations. Your rendition encourages us further in that direction.
Could you please expound on Visa regimen – I thought we needed separate visas for the two countries without inter-connectivity options. Is it possible (sorry, how is it done ?) wherein you get into Cambodia and fly out of Vietnam.
And now that we are at it, any recommendations on airlines/ fares, etc.
Thanks for the enlightening post.
Auro.
Hey Auro,
So nice to hear from you.
1. VISA to cambodia is easy. It is available online, you pay online, you get a print that you show at immigration.
2. VISA to Vietnam is available on arrival but I would suggest that you secure it here. There is a embassy in Delhi and you would need to submit the papers and the regular drill. We were entering Vietnam from a smaller/lesser-known place so we got it from here. Usually, for all the places we have been going, we are securing VISAs from India.
You need two VISAs but you can easily cross border by road. There are buses going to either side all the time.
We took China Southern and paid about 94K for three of us. We booked 2.5 months in advance.
The route was 1. Delhi – Guangzhou – SiemReap
2. Saigon (HCMC) – Guangzhou – Delhi
We did Siem Reap – Pnom Penh, Pnom Penh – Can Tho, Can Tho – Saigon by road.
Since there is no direct flight, I would suggest that you try to take a break depending on what flight you are picking (China, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore).
All the best.
Nandan,
Your coach/bus rides to places in Cambodia instantly reminded me of the LTC vacations with my family during my school days! Nowadays, not many travel stories documented about such journeys you know!
I have heard Vietnamese are extremely friendly and hospitable. Did you feel so too? Any special anecdotes to share?
Very good write-up..Kudos!
Best.
Thank you Archana.
Actually more than friendly, I would say that they are very very peaceful/not-loud/non-agressive people.
To share an experience, we discovered the traffic on the road was extremely chaotic, courtesy thousands of 2 wheelers. But no one was honking, no one was shouting or giving stares or things like that. It was something hard to imagine, especially in a place where I commute (Noida/Ghaziabad). I do not think whether it is the religion (Buddhism) which makes them go quiet/easy/calm or just plain civic-sense. Whatever it is, as someone from India, it was an extremely welcome break for us.
Wishes.
Hi Nandan,
Your post has given us immense confidence to directly travel to Can Tho through Chau Doc.
We are about to apply for Vietnam eVisa to enter vietnam from Cambodia where port of entry is must. Please share one information that which border(port of entry) did you cross to enter Veitnam.
Thanks & All the best for your future trips,
Souvik
Thank you Souvik for the praise. At least someone is reading these posts :-)
We secured our Viet Visa from here in Delhi, since we planned to cross the border from a smaller/less-frequented port. I do not recall what did we fill finally in the ‘Port of entry’ since it was a paper-form and I do not have the digital version of it. May be if you look it up, there could be a name you can find. Best wishes.
Many many thanks for your post about the trip Phnom Penh to CanTho. I was like you before doing the trip. I had read old blogs about this trip and did not khnow if it was still possible. We did it on 13 of dec. 2017 and eveything was perfect. Departur 6 am arrival 2.30 pm for 16 dollars. No need for visa to enter Vietnam if you are european and stay less than 2 weeks.
Your blog really reassured me before departure. Thanks and all the very best for future travels.
Veronica from France
Glad to read Veronique that it worked for you. So real travel blogs/tips still work and Google is yet to catch-up :-)
I just did the trip in March 2018 and everything worked exactly the way you described it – great work!
Just one more info that might be helpful for people, who want to use an e-visa:
The border crossing takes place via Than Thiem, so you can use an e-visa (check the actual list of borders on the website to be sure).
Thank you for this info!
Do you remember if the bus stop also in Chau Doc (maybe in one of the food/toilet stop)?
Wikitravel (https://wikitravel.org/en/Chau_Doc) mentions this bus and the possibility to stop in Chau Doc, but I don’t find other similar info on internet.
Thank you Lorenzo.
I looked up Chau Doc and it seems to be on the way but I do not recall the name. But if Chau Doc is actually on the route (or even a few miles away), then you should be able to request a stop. Unlike Europe/US, Vietnam seemed more like India where a bus can make a quick stop, anywhere.
All the best.
Dear Nandan Sir,
Thank you so much for the detailed 10 point (and most helpful post) on where to get to the Bus Express and Travel (Cambodia) in Phnom Penh. In my opinion, it is the most definitive guide so far as to travel by this bus company from Phnom Penh to Can Tho (Vietnam) that I can find. Thank you for the photos.
Now that we have Google Maps to thank, there is indeed a petrol station at the junction of Street 230 and St 215 (incidentally named Jawarhalal Nehru Blvd), as you mentioned. I also located the Lili 6666 (not, as you said, Lily 6466, but it’s good enough for sure) opposite the bus office using Google Maps.
I will be going this Nov 2018 from Phnom Penh to Can Tho. I hope to be able to do the trip like you, and thank you for “lessening some your anxiety”.
I have one question, if you don’t mind: Would it be easy to get a tuk-tuk at 5.00 am in the morning, since I would have to get a ride early at that hour to get from my hotel to Street 230?
Thank you very much again for your great help! Namaste
Regards,
Siong Yee
Greetings from Singapore.
Hey Siong,
Glad that it was of some use to you.
As for TukTuk, we found that it is not hard to find a TukTuk in the morning. What we did was the we reserved a TukTuk the previous day and took his phone number. We booked the same TukTuk which we used to find this place so we did not have to do any navigation the next morning.
All the best and do tell us if things are same/changed after your trip. Wishes and lucks.
nandan
does the bus stop in chau doc.?
The bus does not stop in Chau Doc town but you can be left off at an intersection from which you can reach Chau Doc by local transport. Without Vietnamese language this will be challenging. However, if you are traveling FROM Can Tho, then you can go to Chau Doc directly on a local bus. If you want to then continue to Phnom Penh on this bus, you can ask your hotel to help arrange a reservation and pick up point on the highway. They can also help you with the local transport to get to that point.
Just another big thank you. I just booked my ticket!
Just another big thank you. I just booked my ticket!
If you type exactly “Cty Bus Express And Travel” you find it on Google map now :)
Hello. Thank you again I arrived in Can Tho at 1:30pm!
Some answers to previous questions here above : The bus passed the boarder at 9/9h30, passed through Chau Doc (no stop) at 10, and then followed the Mekong River until Can Tho. (There was a stop at 11h30 at My Thanh for lunch, which was free as told herabove).
Hi.
The information is really helpful. Thank you very much.
I was thinking of taking boat to chau doc and then go to Can Tho. By reading this review I am thinking of getting this direct bus.
Did you experience any home stay in Mekong delta?
Do you have any review/report trip of your Mekong delta, siem reap and Phnom penh, that I could read
Again thank you for your time to post your experience
Nahid
Hello Nahid,
No, we stayed in a small hotel for our CanTho part of travel.
Yes, I do have one review of Siemreap – https://www.ghumakkar.com/best-place-stay-angkor-vat-siem-reap-city-bayon-villa/ It was a homestay.
Wishing well.
Nandan Jha, Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. I too have been searching on the internet for said bus and I came across your post. This one of the few times I have come across a post that is very articulate, fact filled, including pictures and easy to read. You are a wonderful man to have created this post for all who follow in your footsteps. We were originally planning Phomn Pehnto Ho Chi Mihn City, then I wanted to divert to Can Tho to go to the Chiang Rai market. We are two weeks in India, as my daughter is marrying an Indian man in his home city in Ludhiana, Punjab.Then another 5 weeks south east Asia. I wonder if this side trip is worth the energy as my husband and I are in our mid sixties and we are getting foot weary. I respect your opinion or any other who would like to comment. Most sincerely, Carol (Canada)
If you make the trip, here are some important note re visas and fees: To enter Vietnam, you must have a visa already. No visa on arrival at this crossing. To enter, Cambodia, you can get a visa on arrival but be sure to have exact amount in USD (+5 more at the ready since the bus will often add a “processing” fee, which goes to the immigration officers.) Getting change may be difficult. Also don’t try to pay with VND or baht… they won’t be happy and it will cost you in really bad exchange rates and you may fall short, as well. You will also need to provide a passport photo. Not having the photo can result in some problems, which at best will be resolved by paying more cash. Please note that E-visas are NOT accepted here… and you would be surprised just how many people show up with them! This will force you to buy a new visa…since you can’t return to Vn unless you have multiple entry VN visa (and transport back, which is dubious.) There is no ATM here, nor a place to get a photo, so you may be in a pickle, particularly if you don’t have cash. (I’ve seen more than one person reduced to begging money from fellow passengers.) Final note: There is NO health fee on either side of the border although your bus conductor may (or may not) try to collect one from you (more often on the Cambodian side at this crossing but on the Vietnam side further south at Ha Tien.) You can just say no which may or may not work, depending on how hard they pressure you and how vulnerable you may feel. It’s usually only $1 and only collected from foreigners. I’ve always said no and never had a problem, although sometimes they can get quite insistent. Have fun…it’s an adventure!
Thank you Carol. Chiang Rai is in North Thailand so may be you mean Mekong Delta market.
A friend lives in Ludhiana, it is called ‘Manchester of East’ but guessing that you would go via Delhi, it is worth the extra steps. If you have never been to India then 2 weeks is good enough to experience a fleeting feel of Delhi, Agra. If you choose to visit Ludhiana then Himalayas is not too far, can do a short one to Mcleodganj (its the place of Dalai Lama). Would be happy to send you more details over email, if you need. Take care.
This is a great summary of the trip, which I’ve taken quit often over the years. There have been some changes since this post. The bus no longer stops at the bakery just out of PP. Since there is now a small rest stop in the Khmer side of the border, the bus has passengers wait there while passports are processed for exit. Foreigners (ie, not Cambodian or Vietnamese passport holders) are required to go through the emigration point in person, where they will take your photo and fingerprints. (Don’t worry, you’ll still have a chance to use the loo and grab a bowl of noodles in most cases.) You can arrange to get off at other points along the way and your ticket will be slightly prorated, at least as far as My Thanh. However, if you don’t speak Vietnamese and can manage directions in that language, you’ll have a hard time getting transport to your destination. The exception is the town of Long Xuyen, where you’ll be left off at a central point and can get to most hotels on foot from there. On arrival in Can Tho, don’t go for the taxis that pull up to the bus…they’re are way overpriced. Instead walk to the road and make a short left turn into a bigger regional bus station. You can pick up a Mai Lan taxi from there. Have them use the meter. On the Phnom Penh side, if you download and use PassApp, you can summon a taxi to the station and you’ll get a more reasonable price than haggling on site.
Important note re visas and fees: To enter Vietnam, you must have a visa already. No visa on arrival at this crossing. To enter, Cambodia, you can get a visa on arrival but be sure to have exact amount in USD (+5 more at the ready since the bus will often add a “processing” fee, which goes to the immigration officers.) Getting change may be difficult. Also don’t try to pay with VND or baht… they won’t be happy and it will cost you in really bad exchange rates and you may fall short, as well. You will also need to provide a passport photo. Not having the photo can result in some problems, which at best will be resolved by paying more cash. Please note that E-visas are NOT accepted here… and you would be surprised just how many people show up with them! This will force you to buy a new visa…since you can’t return to Vn unless you have multiple entry VN visa (and transport back, which is dubious.) There is no ATM here, nor a place to get a photo, so you may be in a pickle, particularly if you don’t have cash. (I’ve seen more than one person reduced to begging money from fellow passengers.) Final note: There is NO health fee on either side of the border although your bus conductor may (or may not) try to collect one from you (more often on the Cambodian side at this crossing but on the Vietnam side further south at Ha Tien.) You can just say no which may or may not work, depending on how hard they pressure you and how vulnerable you may feel. It’s usually only $1 and only collected from foreigners. I’ve always said no and never had a problem, although sometimes they can get quite insistent.
Thank you so much for the description how to go directly from Phnom Penh to Can Tho. We made it just as you said and found everything exactly according to your description. You saved us a day!! The people of our hotel first laughed at us, and Said there is no way to travel to Can To directly. But then they called the ,City Express & Travel Company’ and made the Reservation. We didn’t have to go there before to buy a ticket. We also found the place at Google Maps.
Important maybe relating to the posts before: we had no visa and thought we could get visa on arrival. I read the posts too late so we decided to try it anyway. And we didn’t have any troubles. They let us pass with a 14-days Tourist Visa. We even didn’t have to pay anything. I don’t know if they make differences depending on the country you come from? We’re from Germany.
So thank you again for your hint!
Susanne & Oliver
Glad to know this Susanne and Oliver.
Hi there. Will do the trip tomorrow morning! Is the bus airconditioned or should we bring a jacket? Thank you so much for detailing this option!
Jacob
Oh I am so sorry, I didn’t see your questionin time. :( I hope you had a good trip and I am sure you found out that the bus was air conditioned but not too strong, but that a light pullover maybe was helpful?
Good journey for you…
In which part you got the money exchange? Cambodia side or Vietnam side?
And about simcard , is it safe to buy it right there? No scam?
Frans, this was second trip to Vietnam so I knew that the rates are fine. It was on the Vietnam side. I do not remember whether we converted but it looked all clean. Same for SIM card, as along as you can manage to communicate because they may not be able to tell you what data plan is there, how many calls are allowed, can you call overseas and likes. By and large, we didn’t notice any scam in Viet. Seemed pretty chilled-out overall.